Author: Rajesh Pandey

Research In Motion (RIM) has just announced two new BlackBerry handsets which aim to woo back the company’s once loyal customers.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and the Bold 9930 a.k.a Bold Touch feature a full QWERTY keyboard, and a 2.8-inch Liquid Graphics’ touch screen with VGA (640×480) resolution. The handsets are powered by a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor.

Both the handsets are same right down to the core, except for their network antenna. The Bold 9900 supports HSPA+, while the 9930 supports both dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM. The handsets also pack 768MB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory along with a microSD card slot. The back of the phone sports a 5MP camera with Flash, and Image stabilization. The camera is also capable of recording videos in 720p HD resolution.

The Bold 9900 and the 9930 are also the slimmest BlackBerry handsets until date, measuring in at only 10.5mm. The usual array of sensors Digital Compass, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz), Proximity sensor, GPS with A-GPS and Bluetooth 2.1 are also present. The handsets will also come with an NFC chip, again a first for BlackBerry handsets.

BlackBerry 7 The BlackBerry 7 OS is designed to power the new performance-driven BlackBerry Bold platform. It provides an easier and faster user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.

The Bold Touch 9900 and the 9930 will be running BlackBerry OS 7, when launched. The new OS brings is faster, easier to use, and also brings a new web browser. The new OS also supports voice search, along with BlackBerry Balance. This new features aims at separating a user’s personal and corporate content on his handset.

The handsets will be powered by a 1230mAh user-replaceable battery. The Touch 9900 and the 9930 are expected to be released all over the world beginning this summer’.

AT&T has started rolling out two new software updates for the HTC Inspire 4G and the Motorola Atrix 4G. The software updates for both the handsets mainly aim at removing the cap from the upload speeds.

The Inspire 4G software update brings with some bug fixes, and some email enhancements including automatic configuration for Hotmail, Live and MSN email accounts. The software updates also enables higher upload speeds on the Inspire 4G, for which AT&T has been criticized.

The software update for the Atrix 4G enables higher upload speeds for the handset, and also bumps up the Android version to 2.2.2. Apparently, Motorola is also rolling out another software update for the Atrix 4G. The update in question is this one, which Motorola did not release to the consumers for some reason.

The updates for both the handsets are OTA one, and will be automatically pushed to all Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G handsets. Users can manually check for the update as well, by going to the Settings-> About Phone menu and selecting the Check for update option.

Earlier today, Google announced the Android 2.3.4 OTA update for the Nexus S. The Android 2.3.4 update brings with it some important bug fixes and video chatting capability to Google Talk over Wi-Fi and on 3G/4G.

The big G said that the OTA will be rolled out to all Nexus S owners in a few weeks’ time. However, for the impatient Nexus S owners, the OTA update is already available for manual download and installation.

Nexus S owners should head over to this thread over at XDA forums to download the appropriate OTA file for their handset.

After downloading the update, Nexus S owners should rename the file to update.zip’ and place it in the SD card of their handset. Then, users need to reboot their handset into recovery mode. To do so, switch off your phone, and simultaneously press the Vol. up button + the power button.

Using the volume keys, select the Recovery’ option. Once you are in the Recovery mode, select the option Apply sdcard update.zip’. Once the file is flashed, reboot your phone. After rebooting, users will be able to enjoy the latest version of Gingerbread on their Nexus S.

Back at CES 2011, Motorola announced the Atrix 4G and the Droid Bionic. While the Atrix 4G is already available to the general consumer, the Droid Bionic was expected to be released sometime in Q2 of 2011.

The Droid Bionic is the first dual-core 4G LTE phone headed to Verizon’s network. However, there is a twist in the tale. At the company’s Q1 earning call, Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha told the folks over at Droid-Life that the Droid Bionic launch, as well the XOOM’s 4G LTE update has been delayed.

Instead of the original Droid Bionic, Motorola will now release a new improved and better spec’d Bionic in Q3,2011 .

The XOOM 4G LTE update has been delayed because of Verizon’s 4G LTE network. It looks like the carrier wants to beef up its network, before the XOOM gets 4G LTE support.

For the people who were worried about the low sales figure of the XOOM, the company managed to sell more than 250,000 units.

Keeping in mind that the XOOM launched in the last week of February, and is still not available all over the world, 250k units is not bad at all!

Last month, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread ROM with Sense UI for the HTC Desire Z leaked.

Today, the folks over at XDA forums have managed to get their hands on the leaked Android 2.3 Gingerbread ROM for the T-Mobile G2.

The T-Mobile G2 and the HTC Desire Z are exactly the same phones, except that the former runs on stock Android while the latter has Sense UI on top of it.

Users who have flashed this ROM on their handset, report that the performance and stability of this ROM is top-notch. Sadly, the ROM does not feature the screen-off animation, which Android 2.3 Gingerbread brings.

The leaked ROM works perfectly, which suggests that the T-Mobile G2 Gingerbread update is around the corner. Another HTC Vision’ developer rmk40 has already uploaded a de-odexed and rooted version of the ROM.

Interested T-Mobile G2 owners can head over to this thread to download and install the leaked ROM on their handset. The ROM will also work flawlessly on the HTC Desire Z.

A week ago, we had reported that the HTC Desire Z has got a taste of the Sense 3.0 UI, thanks to the leaked HTC Sensation ROM. However, the Sensation ROM port had many issues due to the difference in resolution (WVGA vs. qHD).

A few days ago, rumors were flowing on the Internet that HTC is already working on the HTC Desire Z successor, with the codename Doubleshot’.

Now, one popular developer over at the HTC Desire Z modding scene rmk40has managed to get his hands on a leaked HTC Doubleshot ROM. He has even ported the ROM to the HTC Desire Z. Since, the Doubleshot’ will sport a WVGA screen, the ROM works without any graphical glitches on the Desire Z.

Early users report that most of the hardware is working on this ROM. However, some bloat ware apps are continuously force closing, which should be rectified pretty soon. The ROM will also work on the T-Mobile G2.

From the screenshots above, readers can easily understand why developers want to port Sense UI 3.0 to the HTC ‘Vision’. The Sense UI in its latest version looks gorgeous!

T-Mobile G2 and HTC Desire Z owners should head over to this thread over at XDA forums for more information about the ROM.

Google has released an Android app for their popular online document editing service – Google Docs. The app will allow users to create, edit and upload documents to Google Docs, right from their Android handset.

However, the best feature of the Google Docs app for Android is its ability to convert text from any image into a document. Users can simply click pictures of any document, and the app will convert the text in the image into a document.

Sadly, the feature does not work as advertised. For me, the Google Docs app struggled to read the text properly from most of the images I clicked. Hopefully, with time this feature will become more usable on a day-to-day basis.

Also, the editor of the app is simply a web app. When a user wants to create a new document, the app will simply open up the Google Docs web app for Android.

The app will run on any Android device running Android 2.1+ or up, including Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Last week, we reported that there is a very strong possibility of Apple officially launching the iPad 2 in India. Well, it’s official now!

Apple has just announced that they will be officially selling the second generation iPad in India. The magical tablet device will be available across India beginning from April 29th.

Along with India, the iPad 2 will also be available in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, South Africa, UAE, Turkey and Mac on April 29th. The iPad 2 packs in a dual-core A5 processor, a GPU which is nearly 9x times more powerful than its predecessor, and 512MB of RAM.

Apple has also gone ahead and unveiled the prices of the iPad 2 in India. The 16GB Wi-Fi model of the iPad 2 will carry a MRP of Rs. 29,500, while the 32GB and the 64GB will retail for a MRP of Rs. 34,500 and Rs. 39,500, respectively.

The 16GB 3G+Wi-Fi model of the iPad 2 will cost Rs. 36,900, while the 32GB and 64GB will set back users by Rs. 41,900 and Rs. 46,900.

It is really nice to see Apple launch the iPad 2 in India, in line with the rest of the world. Apple was heavily criticized for not launching the original iPad in India.

Last year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S with Android 2.1 on-board and TouchWIZ 3.0. Samsung spiced up TouchWIZ with some colorful icons, with the Android 2.2 update for the Galaxy S.

At MWC 2011, Samsung announced the Galaxy S successor the Galaxy S II, which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a new version of TouchWIZ (v4.0) running on top of it. TouchWIZ in its latest version features some new icons, and some new nifty features.

Now, one developer over the Galaxy S modding scene fear2142 – has managed to port TouchWIZ 4.0 to the Galaxy S, thanks to a Galaxy S II system dump.

Below is a video of TouchWIZ 4.0 in action on the Galaxy S –

The mod will work on the Galaxy S XXJVB ROM de-odexed ROM. The mod also works on Galaxy S Custom ROMs based on the XXJVB firmware. The TouchWIZ 4.0 launcher does have some stability issues though.

Interested Galaxy S users should head over to this thread, for more information on how to install TouchWIZ 4.0.